Only Sleeping?
by Kitz the Kitsune
Summary: For Lil'InuYasha's contest to be a char in AFILAW. Shippou wonders about death... Lots of reviews about Shippou. Yes he's a kitsune in the series, but he is a neko in Lil' Inuyasha's story!


Kitz: Just a cute lil one shot for Lil'Inu-Yahsa's contest to be a char in AFILAW.  
htt p/ www. fanfiction .net/s /1928272 / 1/ (Remove spaces)  
Plz read!

Theme: Innocent as a Child

And of course, read and review. Make me happy.

!13!

"Inuyasha?" Inuyasha stirred in his sleep. "Inuyasha." Opening a sleepy, golden eye he turn his gaze on a fidgeting neko youkai.

"Shippou?" He yawned the boy's name as he sat up. "Shippou, what's wrong?"

"I had a nightmare." The boy whispered as he climbed into Inuyasha's lap. Laying his head on the older hanyou's thigh he sniffled lightly. "I was back at home again, but it was different. I kept trying to talk to everybody, but nobody would even look at me. It was like I wasn't there. I tried touching them, but I went through them, and Mama. Mama could see me, and she glared real hard, and-" The distraught neko couldn't go on, bursting into a fit of sobs.

"Shh, Shippou. I'm here. I'm here." Inuyasha made an attempt to calm him. Hugging Shippou to him, he coddled the boy into his sobs became quiet sniffles.

"Inuyasha?"

"Hmm?" The boy blinked sleepily as he fought to stay awake. "What?"

"What about your Mama?" Inuyasha froze. He didn't like to talk about his mother. In fact, he only talked about her to Kagome, but Kagome didn't even really count because she was different. She understood. Shaking his head he focused back on the child.

"What? What do you mean 'what about your Mama'?" Knowing perfectly well what the boy meant.

"Well, she's not here... so where is she?"

"Sh-She never came back." He whispered the words his father said to him so many years ago.

"She left you?" Shippou seemed surprised. "Why would she leave you? Why didn't she take you with her?" He cocked his head in confusion. Inuyasha let a dry, hollow laugh echo from his throat.

"No. She left... but in a different sense. She died."

"Oh." The neko seemed to roll that thought around in his mind. Glancing at the clock, Inuyasha glared vehemently at the blinking 5:42. He had school tomorrow - today- whatever.

"Inuyasha?" Inuyasha mentally sighed at the boy's never ending questioning. Maybe he should change his name...

"Yeah?"

"What does 'dead' mean?" Inuyasha blinked at the neko youkai. How in the world do you explain death?

"Well umm... death is when... uhh... You know the birds and squirrels you hunt?"

"Yeah." Shippou wondered what this had to do with death. He hunted them and then he ate them. Shippou gasped in horror at his realization. " i THEY ATE HER/i "

" i b WHAT/i /b " Inuyasha freaked out in a loud whisper. Quickly covering the obviously confused child's mouth, he waited for a second to see if his father had heard them. A loud snore gave him his answer, and he relaxed. Turning back to the child, he incredulously asked, "What gave you that idea?"

"Well I eat the squirrels and birds, so death must mean that they ate her!" The neko started freaking out. "I don't want death! I don't want death!" He began a soft mantra under his breath as he ran around in circles on Inuyasha's bed.

Inuyasha sweat dropped, and picked the child up and sat him on his lap. "Shippou?"

"Yeah?" The panicking child stopped panicking long enough to answer.

"Death does not mean you EAT people. You know after you catch your prey, after a while it stops moving and it's heart stops beating?"

"When it goes to sleep? Yeah." The neko cocked his head. When were they getting to the 'death' part?

"Shippou it's not really sleeping. It's... dead." Inuyasha hoped that would do. As if.

"So we die every night?" Inuyasha sweat dropped.

"No. That's when you're sleeping."

"So... sleeping is not dieing.." Shippou said slowly as if he had hit a realization.

"Yes.." Inuyasha responded in equal fashion.

"What's the difference?"

"When you sleep you'll eventually wake up. When you die... you don't. You don't ever wake up."

"So they're just sleeping forever?" Shippou asked quietly. Inuyasha was about to correct him when he thought about it for a moment. He guessed the kitten was right.

"Yeah. That's why they put 'RIP - Rest in Peace' on the grave stones." Shippou nodded absentmindedly, lost in his own thoughts.

Just when Inuyasha was about to finally nod off.. "Inuyasha?" Inuyasha suppressed a groan.

"Wake up."

"What?"

"You were about to go back to sleep. Please wake up. Don't leave me here. Alone." Inuyasha blinked at the kitten. Picking up the boy, and bringing him to his chest, he snuggled into him.

"I'll never leave you alone, Shippou. I promise."

"Good." Inuyasha yawned, satisfied with the answer... Only to groan when he realized it was time to get up.


End file.
